9-11-01 – Let’s Never Forget

September 12, 2012 By Jenifer Bowen

9-11-01 – It’s hard to believe it has been 11 years since that tragic day. That morning being just a brief snapshot of time. 2,976 people died. Some in an instant. Some knew only shock, disbelief, horror as they traveled on hijacked planes to their deaths. Some were helpless to save themselves and waited for death to come for them.

Mothers, fathers, grandparents, businessmen and women, first responders, members of the clergy—their lives were in full motion. And just like that. Ended. With no warning. With no chance to defend themselves. Dead.

As a native New Yorker, then a Pennsylvanian and now an Iowan, I was devastated that day in ways I still cannot articulate. We all were. We stood still. We cried. We wailed. We screamed in utter dismay at the television screen. We hugged our family and friends, tighter and more often.

Just over 4,000 days have passed since 9-11-01.

Almost every single day in those 4,000 days, an estimated 4,000 babies, have lost their lives. In what should be the safest place in the world…their mother’s womb.

Close to 1.5 million lives have ended every single year since that day.

In that time, more than 16 million unborn lives ended before they drew their first breath. Who were they created to be? Surgeons—fathers—mothers—teachers—pastors—bakers—scientists—actors—authors—pilots—librairians—firemen—astronauts? Who? We will never know.

Girls and boys who never got to take their first breath—to live their lives—to dream about who they wanted to grow up to be.

On September 11, 2001, we watched in terror as terrorists took the lives of so many of our countrymen and women—and mercilessly killed them.